IRS Tortures Wealthy Taxpayers with ‘Audits from Hell’

The Internal Revenue Service set up a unit named the Global High Wealth Industry Group to conduct audits on wealthy taxpayers and their complicated financial arrangements. The unit began conducting audits in 2010, requesting hard-to-get documents in very short time periods. The individuals being audited, unlike corporations, do not have financial officers or tax departments to respond to the burdensome requests. The audits are so intensive that unit teams each handle only a few at a time.

Donna Hansberry, a longtime IRS litigator and former senior legal adviser on the IRS commissioner’s staff, heads the unit. The audit teams consist of “A-list examiners” from around the country who have worked on coordinated corporate audits. With teams this sophisticated and experienced, the unit is sure to unearth trouble and torture wealthy taxpayers.

See Arden Dale, ‘Audits from Hell’ Target Rich, W.S.J., Nov. 13, 2010.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.